The Midtown Slasher

By Jessi Dillard

In September of 1980, an obsessively racist 25 year old man named Joseph Christopher set out on a one-man crusade against blacks – leaving behind him a trail of victims that stretched all the way from upstate New York down to Georgia's deep southwest. He also made a lasting impression on many communities that had previously not experienced serious racially-induced violence, infusing these peaceful areas with a heavy atmosphere of hate and bigotry...To this day, unsolved crimes remain that have been connected to Christopher's race-fueled war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201468644

Book preview

THE MIDTOWN SLASHER

JESSI DILLARD

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MIDTOWN SLASHER

TIMOTHY SPENCER

SUFFOLK STRANGLER

In September of 1980, an obsessively racist 25 year old man named Joseph Christopher set out on a one-man crusade against blacks – leaving behind him a trail of victims that stretched all the way from upstate New York down to Georgia’s deep southwest. He also made a lasting impression on many communities that had previously not experienced serious racially-induced violence, infusing these peaceful areas with a heavy atmosphere of hate and bigotry.

To this day, unsolved crimes remain that have been connected to Christopher’s race-fueled war.

Quiet and unassuming

On July 26, 1955, Joseph Christopher was born to Nicholas and Therese Hurley Christopher in Buffalo, New York. The son of Italian immigrants, Nicholas worked in maintenance with the city’s sanitation department, while his wife Therese was a registered nurse and a member of the choir at Buffalo’s St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church.

The couple raised four children in an east-side neighbourhood in Buffalo that had at one time been predominantly Italian, but had started to attract a significant black population. Christopher was the second youngest child born to Nicholas and Therese.

Nicholas was an avid outdoorsman, and Christopher idolized his father. When Christopher was young, he helped his father construct a cabin on a plot of land Nicholas had purchased just 40 miles outside of Buffalo, in Ellington, New York. The three-room cabin was built with just plywood and tarpaper. Christopher learned to hunt with his father, who taught him how to handle weapons, and shared with Christopher his deep passion for the outdoors.

Before being enrolled in public school, Christopher attended parish classes at his mother’s church. In 1971, he began studying automotive mechanics at Burgard Vocational High School – but after failing both English and science in early 1974, he dropped out. Still, he is remembered as being quiet and unassuming, and was recognized for his skill in shop.

Joe was very intelligent, though he wasn’t book-smart, recalled the school’s secretary.

Even after dropping out of high school, Christopher continued living with his family in the small, grey home where he grew up. He started working odd jobs for extra money, doing work for neighbours and helping out a local furnace repairman. He even teamed up with a friend to open a small home-improvement business.

There wasn’t anything that Joe couldn’t fix, the friend remembered. Unfortunately, the venture was short-lived. Too much competition to make a living from it, said the friend.

Around that time, Christopher was rejected by the Army. He’d attempted to enlist, a friend explained, but he was refused due to an apparent hernia. Instead, he accepted a position in 1977 working at the American Brass Company as an unarmed security guard. The company, which operated on Buffalo’s west side, was in the middle of a strike – and Christopher started pulling in up to $300 per week by working as much as 84 hours.

The situation cooled in 1978, and Christopher moved on to earn a modest $125 per week doing maintenance at Canisius College. It was here that he met and fell in love with the secretary, whom he moved in with after a brief courtship. They lived in a home owned by her father in the west part of Buffalo.

In addition to her job as a secretary, Christopher’s live-in girlfriend was an instructor in the Bisonite Pistol and Rifle Club, which frequently visited the firing range at Canisius College. Christopher signed up with the club, and within a few months, earned his qualification certificate from the National Rifle Association as an instructor, himself.

He wanted a change.

Christopher’s shift at the college was an overnight one – from midnight until 8 a.m. His co-worker, a black man named Ernest Smith, said the two were friendly for at least the first year of Christopher’s employment at Canisius.

We would do the job at night in a couple of hours, then smoke some reefer and sleep, Smith said.

When the shift ended, they would frequently stop by the physical education building to lift weights, play pool at one of the neighbourhood bars, or just drive around and chat. Smith noted that one point, security officials had to warn Christopher not to carry a gun on the college campus – but other than that, things were just fine.